DougH

34 minutes ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Here in Oregon, there is an effort to get a measure on the ballot that would limit the size of the magazine of a gun.  I would be fine with that.

We have those laws in MA, along with a AWB tied to the 1994 Federal legislation.

You can still buy "pre-ban" rifles, and large capacity magazines; it just makes an old rifle or magazine, whether new old stock or well worn, much more expensive than what new products sell for elsewhere in the country. For example, 2-3k for an old Colt AR. Supply and demand.

Whether that contributes to lowering gun violence will probably depend on who you ask, but it probably doesn't make our state more prone to non-drug and gang related gun violence.

1 hour ago, JerryBaumchen said:

I think this is exactly what is going on.  

And, that is why I say that this is NOT a mental health issue. 

Isn't that the definition of a potentially addressable mental health issue? I am not a medical professional, but I would classify wanting to commit suicide in a grand manner, and murder a bunch of people in the process, as a mental health issue.

I will concede that it isn't only a mental health issue, it is a societal issue too, and that neither are going to be easily solved. 

From the mental health aspect I see two opportunities.

• Can you get these mass shooters help during the course of their life before they get to this point? The systems and resources required to do this would benefit all of our youth. It would help the reduce the rates of depression and suicide among children.
• Can you figure out a way to identify these individuals and limit their access to purchase and obtain firearms.

1 hour ago, JerryBaumchen said:

This whole 'mental health issue' is just another way for both parties to not have to deal with the real issues; one being the easy access to guns.

IMO we simply have to take away these guns that, in truth, are weapons of war.

I struggle with addressing this because I simply don't think it is realistic that we will see laws passed that result in a meaningful reduction in the easy access to guns, at least not broadly, because of the political calculus.

There is also the issue of the guns already in private ownership. The expired AWB from 1994 grandfathered firearms that would be otherwise banned, and any new law would have to do the same. Our constitution expressly forbids ex post facto laws that don't provide for grandfathering.

Aside from taking away guns, are there specific gun laws that you think would have a reasonable chance of being implemented, that would help reduce these terrible shootings?

On 6/7/2022 at 6:02 PM, JerryBaumchen said:

  So, I ask:  Which of the mass shooters this year would have not passed a mental health exam?

Fair question. We would probably need a few experienced psychiatrists and psychologists to weight in.

I think the author's of Wendy's article would lean towards an answer of maybe, since their premise is that most of these individuals aren't psychopaths or monsters, and are instead isolated angry young men that got to this terrible tipping point over time.

I guess it comes down to whether they are so calculated that they would present the persona of a happy untroubled person, or whether their troubled nature would come through in their answers and interactions.

Some combination of a well designed psychiatric evaluation, personal references, and more thorough background check would be better than nothing. I would be on board as a gun owner, as long as it was designed to offer due process and an appropriate appeal process. Realistically I don't think we will ever see a system like that put in place.

Obviously not this year, but I don't see how Adam Lanza would have passed a mental health exam and references they were required to purchase is own firearm, but he had access to his mother's firearms.  https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/21/justice/newtown-shooter-adam-lanza-report/index.html Lots of red flags missed there, failures on all levels, and horrible parenting.

On 6/7/2022 at 6:02 PM, JerryBaumchen said:

From your link:  The Buffalo shooter told his teacher that he was going to commit a murder-suicide after he graduated.

If the teacher does nothing when she/he learns this, then just what will work?

Until my mind is changed, I've given up on 'dealing with mental health issues' being what can stop this carnage.

That was the last warning sign, but how many things contributed to getting to that point over the past few years that may have offered opportunities for intervention.

I would like to believe, admittedly with no basis, that there were other indications that this individual was struggling with addressable issues and circumstances.

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

I just read this; there's food for thought. The researchers have spent significant time studying this by actually studying the perpetrators, and talking to ones who survived -- not just tut-tutting about the bad things they did. It's in Politico, which tends very left, but sometimes there's message in stuff you don't always agree with.

This was a good article, thanks for sharing.

I have held a general belief for a while that we are all collectively contributing to the incidence of people turning into these mass shooters because of certain societal failings; child welfare systems failing kids, poor parenting, school system failures, our failure to get a handle on bullying, the increase in social isolation.

It also isn't surprising to me that we aren't identifying these people until it is to late, again because of those same failures.

The article discusses mentions that the Buffalo shooter told his teacher that he wanted to commit a murder suicide. This was in a state with red flag laws, tough gun laws, and a statement made directly to a person of authority, not just anonymous ramblings on a Facebook messenger group. That sounds like the conditions you need to stop this sort of thing, and yet the warning signs were ignored, so something has to change.

38 minutes ago, wmw999 said:

Yes, it's an interruption to a career if there are limits. Tough shit -- it's supposed to be public service, kind of like serving on a jury. 5 terms for the US House, and 2 terms for the Senate. Or, for Senators (because there are only 2 for each state), maybe a combined max of 4 terms between the two.

I don't have an ounce of sympathy for the impact to representatives "careers", and I am skeptical about there being any real impact. Even with term limits the job will continue to be a tool for personal enrichment. I don't think this will change the impact of lobbyists, so our representatives will just go through the revolving door sooner. 

I am actually less concerned about the loss of "expertise"; much of their expertise is borrowed from their staff and lobbyists. Their personal expertise is political games and remaining in office. I am however concerned about the higher turnover increasing the importance of the primary system that allows a small largely ideologically extreme portion of the population to shape the pool of candidates that we have to choose from. You may find Mitch reprehensible, but his is likely standing in the way of someone that could be way way worse given the current political and ideological climate in the country.

----

Lets scrap it all and switch to a public service draft. Candidates are selected based on some combination of representative demographics and expertise, and we vote for that pool of candidates. No campaigning, no bullshit, you get to pick from Doctor A or Doctor B, Tradesman A or Tradesman B, and Teach A or Teacher B.

They go to the "Congressional island of doom" during their public service period, that limits the reach of lobbyists and other influences with agendas. Lobbyists have to swim to the island past the sharks. We bring in subject matter experts that are relevant to the legislation being crafted and debated.

After their tour of duty is up we have service award "elections" where we either reward them handsomely for answering their call to service and doing a good job, send them home with a plaque for mediocre service, or drop them into one of the islands volcanoes if they are a Marjorie Taylor Greene type of crazy.

I think my congressional island of doom has a high chance of getting put in place compared to the congress critters voting in their own term limits. 

59 minutes ago, swoopfly said:

So you believe a person with no medical training , no medical license even for that matter . Can make an FAA medical determination for the FAA staff .

They didn't do that.

59 minutes ago, swoopfly said:

I believe the only issue of the TI rating would be one is the ti on drugs that maybe a problem

Wait, I thought you said that the USPA can't make a medical determination?! "seems rather ironic".

The class 3 medical has a 60 month renewal if you are under 40 years old.

If my medical has 4 years on the clock, and the USPA was put on notice that I recently I suffered a head injury and experienced a partial loss of vision that would have precluded me from getting the medical if they were pre-existing conditions at the time of my last medical, should they knowingly consider my medical requirement to be met for the next four renewals?

Maybe DZ A told me to hang it up because I was having close calls and endangering students, so I just went to Shitty McDZO down the street who was happy to have a warm body. Is the USPA supposed to sit on their hands until the FAA catches up with my medical condition?

I am not saying that the USPA made the right decision, or that due process was followed, but I disagree with your premise that they don't have the authority to do what they did.

So when do we get to hear the juicy details from "As the Prop Turns". Who stole whose rotation or girlfriend? Who was acting like such a pain in the ass that all of these dominos started falling?

13 minutes ago, swoopfly said:

Not sure how you consider this hair splitting . It’s actually spelled out pretty clearly in the sim and online . You must possess a current class 3 medical , it even goes on to state how to obtain one and mentions it’s the “instructors “ responsibility to keep it up to date ,not USPA in fact they can’t even issue medicals much less revoke one. 

They didn't issue or revoke a medical.

They refused to accept the provided FAA medical as sufficient to meet their requirements.

It is a very clear distinction. Again, they aren't issuing or revoking a medical, they aren't the FAA they can't do that obviously. Instead they are evaluating whether their requirement is met given additional information, since it is their requirement and their tandem rating credential they have latitude in determining whether the requirement was met. 

8 hours ago, swoopfly said:

Again USPA list the FAA medical as acceptable, you can’t do tandems without a medical while actually holding an FAA medical . And be in violation . 

Whole lot of hair splitting going on here.

It is a USPA tandem rating, so setting aside our expectations of due process, if they decide that you don't meet the requirements they can revoke your rating.

There must be a soap opera of epic proportions behind all of this. Some one either had a big axe to grind with this instructor, or had concerns about this instructors fitness conduct tandems. Either way they reached out the USPA with a compelling enough story to put this all in motion. The USPA doesn't do random audits of these type of thing without being put on the trail.

2 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Ive never been constrained by the rules on dz.com, but then I don’t find that calling people names or pejoratives helps a conversation. Conversations are about talking with each other — no-rules shouting matches are much more about talking at each other. No thanks, been there, got sick of it.

No kidding! Moderating isn't censorship or curating. It doesn't hinder the exchange of ideas, unless your idea of exchange ideas is foaming at the mouth in an unaccountable manner. 

It is hard enough to have substantive conversations with people right now. Lots of cognitive dissonance, way too many strongly held convictions loosely supported. I fail to see how it would help if we were able to insult people and discount arguments because they came from "Republitards and Demorats".

Besides, the moderation on here is basically the Michelob Ultra of moderation. Plenty of posters on here demonstrate that you can have zero intellectual integrity in what you post if you can avoid direct name calling and outright slurs. This isn't a dig at our fine moderators, just an observation on how far they are from being heavy handed. 

1 hour ago, SkyDekker said:

If the Republicans have taught me anything is that those who are poor are simply too lazy to work for the American Dream.

Not if they are male white and rural, that type of poor isn't lazy; they are being oppressed, and purposely left behind, by minorities, women, the woke, etc.

40 minutes ago, DFWAJG said:

You are blind to my avatar? 

Do you mean your avatar that is a picture of you skydiving with a full face and sunglasses? I have seen pictures of people wearing a hijab that has more identifiable skin exposed. 

It isn't as if you have an profile image of you wearing everyday clothes, or beach attire.

We obviously like our ancient website. I personally think facebook groups and other online formats  suck compared to a forum.

Other obviously disagree, but that doesn't surprise me.

They lend themselves to the type of interaction that fits well with most peoples gnat like attention spans. They are designed to push up the frequency and volume of communication for their advertisement revenue, so you get the same post and discussion 1000x without any of the depth.

On 5/15/2022 at 8:00 AM, wmw999 said:

I’m visiting a friend right now, and I usually help her with one of her many projects while I do (I actually enjoy that kind of thing up to a point — you have a day or two of hard work, lots of gratitude, and you’ll never have to deal with it again).

Well, this time it’s diving post holes with an auger for her pole bean garden. The field is really uneven, making rolling the auger even more challenging. The sucker weighs in the hundreds of pounds, and even with both of us rolling it we had to do some bumps a wheel at a time.

The plan was to make 20 holes and fill them with posts and concrete them in. So far we’ve finished 5.

BUT: we are two 67-year-old ladies. For us, it’s emphatically a 2-person job. And job well done so far — I’m happy. I know how to use a new tool, and next time I come I can admire her garden.

But I’ll probably suggest a less aggressive project the next time .

Wendy P. 

That type of project is when a rental tractor with a 3 point hitch and a PTO auger pays dividends. Wrists are way way more expensive to the wallet than an equipment rental ever could be!

On 5/14/2022 at 10:56 AM, airdvr said:

Resurgence here in Ohio.  At Rox's facility 23 of 32 resident tested positive and 8 staff.  No doubt the staff brought it in.  Interesting...the residents who already had covid are fairing much better than the one's who are triple jabbed but never had covid before.  

This variant doesn't seem to care about vaxx status.

Great medical research there. Excellent use of a control group. 

I would assume that the residents who have had covid before are also vaccinated and boosted. So it is hard to tease out what is conferring the advantage there.

My hypothesis is that a combination of being fully vaccinated and boosted, plus having an mild or asymptomatic infection would result in the best possible immune reaction against the virus. The vaccinations hedge against having a severe infection, and the actual infection gives your immune system a full spectrum view of the virus that you don't get with the targeted spike protein.

I caught covid about a month ago for a coworker. She thought she was having allergies and came in to work, we sit in the same area. Thankfully I was her only close contact at work.

Both of us are vaxxed and boosted, and both were only sick with flu like symptoms for 2 or 3 days. 

So now I am super immune, and have returned to licking produce in the supermarket, and random door knobs.

Why do you need the large PC in the first place? Now that you found the variable, eliminate it!

4 hours ago, billvon said:

Exactly.  Here in the US, no one would be stupid enough to elect a reality-TV show actor as president.

That isn't cool Bill, you are selling him short on the resume. You forgot racist, rapist, con man, and failed business man.

We already have enough identified trolls, do we have to suffer through this anonymous sock puppet too?

2 minutes ago, kallend said:

And these are the people who otherwise want less government intrusion in our lives.

They only want less government when they think that they are on the wrong side of the intersection between government and the general public.

Less government when it inconveniences them, more government when it impacts others; it doesn't matter that they are experiencing minor inconveniences, while they cheer on the government seriously impacting the lives of others. 

The building inspector and quasi government HOA are a bunch of assholes to these people, so is the IRS, and ATF.

But they would celebrate more police, more prisons, and apparently now a vagina swat team.

3 hours ago, sfzombie13 said:

maybe we should figure out a way to start getting the uspa officials to start following the rules.

They are elected officials, if the voters don't hold officials accountable the officials will operate within their own self imposed constraints.

Some will be model students, and others will push the limits and beyond.

Not much different than all of our congress kritters in Washington DC.

28 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

Yet the French grounded their E Busses and not their diesel fleet.

Vehicles get recalled on a regular basis for safety issues that are identified.

It isn't a flaw of electric vehicles, it is a design feature of vehicle production.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:49 PM, drichert10 said:

Does anyone know anything about a PISA Hornet flight characteristics? Thanks in advance.

Flies similar to a pilot. 

Quick recovery arc out of a dive or other input of speed. Trimmed relatively flat, more shallow glide ratio than a Sabre 2.

Opening can occasionally be on the hard side. People use to modify it to partially brace the nose, I think they called it an H-mod, unless I am making false memories MEL used to do this, and larger/pocketed sliders were also tried.

PISA made them with the "Gelvanor" tackly South African ZP, oversized brass slider grommets, and colored packing tabs. If you could find one in good shape I wouldn't hesitate to jump it if you aren't looking to learn high performance landings. They are great canopies, I wish I still had mine. 

16 hours ago, Spicy Mozarella said:

Had my first tandem today. I got very nauseous and dizzy. I tried very hard not to pass out. I don't get motion sick in a car or in a boat either. But this was really uncomfortable and scary. I got when sick doing turns also. Luckily I didn't throw up, thanks to my instructor who took great care of me.

Before doing the tandem I was thinking of maybe going for a license but now I think this sport is not for me. My instructor said I may have felt that way because I didn't have anything to eat in the last three hours but I had a whole pizza in the morning (about 5-6 hours before the jump). They told me to try again after eating and getting my blood sugar up.

Anyway just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone has gone through a similar experience / have any tips.

I also now have a free jump because I bought a special package lol. But I don't think I'm doing that jump anytime soon.

Tandems can be uncomfortable and lead to nauseousness or faintness in certain circumstances.

It could have been the way the instructor adjusted the harness. Some body types are less forgiving of a misadjusted harness, weight and body composition are the main reasons, and if you don't fit the harness a certain wait it impacts blood flow to the lower legs and makes the student feel lousy.

It could have just been adrenaline, the initial jumps are overwhelming for some people, lots of sensory overload.

It could be passenger experience of doing a tandem. Think of people that get motion sick sitting in the back of a car, but can be the driver with no issues.

Hard to put a handle on it without having been your actual instructor.

All that being said I have taken several students over my years of doing tandem jumps who were experiencing bad motion sickness who went on to be solo jumps with no problems. Solo jumps are much less likely to result in the same feelings.

I would be very surprised if this continue on to your solo jumps, so give it another shot if the only thing that is holding you back is the motion sickness.

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

Win win! I will make a profit on my house . Who cares if that means I have to move, that’s not a problem unless it happens  

Wendy P. 

I am in Western MA. I am hoping when I have the means, and RE tempers some, I can buy up a large plot of land for my kid. I have a feeling that 30 years from now the opportunity may be lost to get larger amounts of acreage. And in the meantime we might be able to set it up as the family camping spot and wood lot.

My hunch is that having that twenty acre plot of useable land purchased now is going to be like the people that bought in Cape Cod in the 60's and 70's which turned into very desirable properties by 2000's.

On 4/15/2022 at 2:08 PM, Bigfalls said:

If it gets too hot here in the USA, Canada better watch out.  Trump won't be around so somebody better start building a wall.

West to east is going to be more likely for most climate migration. Californians and such moving to New England and the mid-Atlantic because they are sick of mega drought, sucking forest fire smoke 24-7, and would like to actually have reliable water sources.

1 hour ago, brenthutch said:

More food, fewer deaths?

I passed gas today in the vicinity of my wife, later this afternoon she was in a great mood. More gas, happy wife, HAPPY LIFE.

Makes about as much sense as everything else that you have posted in here.